Display rack



Jan. 2, 1962 E. M. LEVY 3,015,466

7 DISPLAY RACK 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 29, 1959 INVENTOR. EDWARD M.LEVY @W6Z@@Wf W Bike/ E. M. LEVY DISPLAY RACK Jan. 2, 1962 4Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 29, 1959 INVENTOR.

EDWARD M. LEVY BY QM Jan. 2, 1962 E. M. LEVY 3,015,466

DISPLAY RACK Filed Oct. 29, 1959 4 SheetsSheet 4 INVENTOR. EDWARD M.LEVY E ia/ United States Patent 3,015,466 DISPLAY RACK Edward M. Levy,Evanston, IlL, assignor to Reflector- Hardware Corporation, MelrosePark, 111., a corporation of Illinois Filed Oct. 29, 1959, Ser. No.849,672 4- Claims. (Cl. 248-458) The present invention relates tomerchandising devices and more particularly to improvements inmerchandise display equipment of a type especially suitable for use inretail stores and the like where it is important to display goods in anattractive manner.

Most modern retail store owners or managers are fully aware of the factthat the volume of sales of the various individual items in theirinventories usually can be increased materially when each type ofmerchandise is displayed to its great advantage. Because most stores nowsell a great variety of difierent types of items, however, many retailestablishments, and particularly the small ones, have not been able inthe past to purchase the many types of special display stands, racks andshelves that would heretofore have been necessary to present thedifferent kinds of merchandise in the most attractive manner. Since suchracks, stands and shelves have heretofore been of a more or. less fixedor permanent nature, and in many instances have been custom-built andvirtually incapable of modification, many store owners have thoughtspecial display fixtures to be too expensive to be practical and haveadhered to the old counter-and-shelf arrangement for nearly all of theirsmaller goods, with the result that the goods have not been adequatelydisplayed and their places of business in many cases have taken on thedrab atmosphere that results when arrangements of goods cannot be variedfrom time to time.

Since flexibility is exceedingly important in the proper display ofmerchandise, it is desirable to provide display equipment that can beassembled and disassembled readily to facilitate alteration of aparticular display arrangement and movement of the equipment from onelocation to another. In view of this, an object of the present inventionis to provide display equipment which accomplishes this objective byfacilitating quick and ready assembly and disassembly.

Another object of the invention is that of providing merchandise displayequipment having one or more standards or posts adapted to haveshelving, hang rods and paneling secured thereto and which are quicklyand easily secured to a support structure of some type; that, forexample, may be a merchandise display counter, an island or a relativelylow base.

Another object of the invention is in the provision of display equipmentof the character described and to pro vide therein fastener or anchorstructure that permits the standards to be secured in place andthereafter removed without disturbing merchandise displays which may bearranged along the top of such support structure for the standards.

A further object of the invention is to provide a fastening or anchoringarrangement for removably securing the standards of display equipment toa base and which does not require the use of special tools and skills toeifect the mounting and subsequent removal of the standards.

The invention, both as to its organization and method of operation,together with further objects and advantages thereof, will best beunderstood by reference to the following specification, taken inconnection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a display stand incorporating thepresent invention, a portion of the base being broken away to show themounting means for the standards; FIG. 2 is an enlarged, partial,transverse sectional 3,015,466 Patented Jan. 2, 1962 ice view taken inthe direction of the arrows along the line 22 of FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is avertical sectional view taken in the direction of the arrows along theline 3-3 of FIG. 2, with a portion of the socket broken away to show therelationship of the wedge to the socket and standard; FIG. 4 is afurther enlarged transverse sectional view similar to FIG. 2, but withportions of the device broken away to more clearly illustrate structuraldetails; FIG. 5 is a broken transverse sectional view taken in thedirection of the arrows along the line 55 of FIG. 4; FIG. 6 is atransverse sectional view similar to FIG. 4, but illustrating adifferent embodiment of the invention; FIG. 7 is a transverse sectionalview similar to FIG. 4 but illustrating still another embodiment of theinvention; FIG. 8 is a partial side elevational view of the embodimentshown in FIG. 2 and illustrating the use of a jack for releasing thestandards from the base of the stand; FIG. 9 is a broken side view inelevation showing a modified form of the jack; FIG; 10 is a broken topplan view taken generally along the line 1010 of FIG. 9; FIG. 11 is anend view in elevation of the jack; and FIG. 12 is an enlarged brokenside view in elevation with portions thereof illustrated in sectionshowing a modified wedge used in conjection with the structuralcomposition shown in FIG. 9.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention, the display standincludes a base 10, a pair of upright standards or posts 11 and a seriesof shelves 12 supported by the standards 11 at various heightstherealong. The standards 11 may have various crosssectionalconfigurations such as rectangular or square as shown and preferablyprovide a plurality of vertically spaced pairs of slots 13 forfacilitating the mounting of shelves or other display apparatus thereonat selected locations. The shelves 12 are shown supported by brackets14, each of which has a pair of spaced hooks selectively and removablyreceivable within the slots 13. Since these hooks may be of obvious formand do not of themselves constitute a feature of the present invention,they are not illustrated in the drawings or further described herein.

The shelves 12 can be arranged at various heights, can be of varioussizes and may extend from either or both sides of the standards 11, asshown in FIG. 1. Furthermore, other forms of display apparatus such aspanels, peg boards, hangrods, brackets and books may be mounted on thestandards 11 along with or in place of the shelves.

The base 10 may be of any suitable form, and is illustrated in FIG. 1 asincluding a top wall 15 surmounting a simple box-like frame comprisingfour walls 16. It is particularly to be noted that the base 10 is simplya support for the standards 11 and may take various forms such as adisplay counter mounted'on a cabinet of drawers, a center island, etc.,and the term base" is intended to be exemplary of such supportstructure.

Each of the standards 11 is connected to the base 10 by means of anupwardly opening socket construction 29 which receives therein the lowerend of the standard 11. An opening 21 is provided in the top wall 15 foreach standard to permit passage of the lower end thereof, along with awedge 22 carried thereby, into the socket 20. The wedge is used toanchor the lower end of the standard firmly within the socketconstruction 20.

Each socket construction includes a right angle socket brace orreinforcing element 24 and a strap 25 which are secured together and toa portion of the base wall 16 by any suitable fastening means, such asscrews 26, extending through appropriate apertures in the flanges 61 and62 of the strap and through apertures respectively aligned therewith inthe vertical leg of the brace.

As is seen best in FIGS. 1 and 5, the strap 25 is formed with two spacedflanges 60 and 61 and a laterally extending U-shaped offset 63 disposedtherebetween. The vertical leg of the reinforcing element 24 iscoextensive with the adjacent portion of the wall 16 and the horizontalleg of the element 24 extends under the otherwise open, lower end of thesocket to afford initially vertical support for the lower end of thestandard 11 when inserted in the socket and to limit the extent of suchinsertion.

In accordance with the embodiment of the invention illustratedspecifically in FIGS. 3 and 5, the wedge 22 is slidably mounted on thestandard 11 by means of rivets 30 which extend through openings in thewedge 22 and through vertically extending upper and lower guide slots 31in the standard 11. The heads of the rivets 30 are preferablycounter-sunk within the wedge 22, and their inner ends are peened overwashers 32, as at 390, so that the wedge is secured to the post in amanner permitting the wedge to slide vertically or longitudinally withrespect thereto. Thus, the wedge is a captivated structure in the sensethat it cannot be removed from the standard but is free to movelongitudinally therealong within the limits defined by the upper andlower guide slots 31.

In the embodiment of the invention specifically illustrated in FIGS. 3and 5, the wedge 22 includes a wedgeshaped heel 34 of wood or othermoderately soft material having -a high coefiicient of friction and adegree of compressibility. A metal cap plate or cover 35 is arrangedagainst the outer upwardly and outwardly inclined surface of thewedge-shaped heel 34 and is bent over the upper and lower ends thereof,as is clearly illustrated in FIG. 4. The wall surface of the offsetportion 25 of the strap 24 which is in facing adjacency with the outerinclined surface of the wedge 22 and which is engaged thereby isinclined upwardly and outwardly to match the inclined surface of thewedge, .as shown in FIG. 4. Thus, a substantial length of the wedgebears against both the standard 11 and the wall of the socket to offer afirm supporting surface of substantial area affording a good frictionalanchorage of the standard within the socket, yet also gaifording readyrelease of such frictional grip upon slight upward movement of thewedge.

The manner of connecting a standard '11 to the base will now be apparentand is as follows. The lower end of a standard 11, with the wedge 22slidably attached thereto is inserted through an opening 21 therefor inthe top wall of the base and into the socket construction 20. With thelower end of the standard abutting the horizontal leg of the reinforcingelement 24, a hammer blow against the upper end of the wedge 22 drivesthe same downwardly and wedges the lower portion of the standard firmlywithin the socket so that it is rigidly maintained thereby in an uprightposition. It should be noted that no tool is required for assembly otherthan a hammer or other device capable of delivering a forceful blowagainst the upper end of the wedge.

The fact that the wedge 22 is slidably secured to the standard 11, inthe embodiment of the invention thus far described, eliminates thenecessity of separately handling any accessory fastening device apartfrom the standard and the base. The inclination of one surface of thesocket to match the inclination of the wedge 22 distributes thesubstantial forces involved in the wedging action over large areas ofthe standard, the wedge and the walls of the socket and offers a rigidsupport for the standard. This permits the use of a thinner, lighter andcheaper construction than would otherwise be required to provideadequate support for the standards, which must in turn support theshelving and merchandise thereon. Indeed, the rigid support of eachstandard is critical to the successful utilization of the space abovethe base, since the total force on the standards is usually a multipleof the shelf load because of the leverage resulting from the helving.

Further in this connection, it should be noted that the construction ofthe socket and the manner of anchoring the standard therein results innone of the wedging force being transmitted to the wall 16 of the base.Additionally, the heel 34 of the wedge 22 being of wood, and thereforehaving substantial compliance, further serves to distribute the wedgingforces evenly over the stressed areas. The extension of'the metal capplate over the upper end of the wedge 22 better enables the wedge towithstand repeated hammer blows attending frequent assembly anddisassembly of display equipment employing the standards.

When it is desired that the display apparatus be disassembled, or moreparticularly that a standard 11 be removed from the base 10, the wedge22 may, if desired, be lifted out of wedging position by inserting aheavy screw driver or similar device into an opening 36 (see FIG. 4)provided near the upper end of the wedge 22, placing a fulcrum beneaththe screw driver and pushing the handle down. It will also be seen thatthe extension of the cap plate 35 over the lower end as well as theupper end of the wood block 34 aids in retaining the plate and block asan integral assembly when a wedge-lifting force is applied at theopening 36.

A still more convenient tool for "lifting the wedge 22 and releasing theassociated standard 11 is illustrated in FIG. 8. The tool is denoted 40and includes a handle 41 having a prong or prongs 42 at one end thereoffor entering the slots 13 in the standard 11. A hook arm 43 is pivotallyconnected to the handle 41 near its pronged end, preferably through ayoke 44 and a pin 45. The lower end of the hook arm 43 is bent to form abook 44 for reception within the opening 36 in the wedge 22. It will beseen readily that the indicated lifting action at the free end of thehandle 41 will cause the hook arm 43 to lift the wedge 22. Such a toolis recommended where it is contemplated that the display apparatus willbe moved or rearranged frequently.

The modified embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 6 differsfrom that previously described in that a wedge 22a is provided which isall metal in construction, which reduces the cost of making andassembling the wedge element and provides a wedge particularly suited tomeet the demands of heavy use.

The further modified embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 7differs from both of those previously described in that a wedge 22b isslidably mounted on the socket wall rather than on the standard 11. Thewedge 22b may have either of the forms described above but isillustrated as being of Wood and metal, as in the case of the wedge 22of FIG. 4. A single rivet 50 is employed for holding the wedge 22b tothe wall of the socket and the head of the rivet is counter-sunk withinthe wedge, while the shank of the rivet extends through a verticallyextending guide slot 51 in the inclined wall of the socket. The otherend of the rivet is peened over a washer 52, as at 50a, to captivate therivet to the socket wall. Since the wedge 22b is of substantially thesame width as the socket, only one pin 50 is required to maintain thewedge in proper alignment; whereas two pins 30 are preferred in theembodiment of FIG. 4 in order that the wedge 22 may be retained inalignment with the standard.

A modified tool structure for releasing the standards from theassociated sockets is shown in FIG. 9 and comprises a standard having apair of spaced legs 65 and 66 equipped at the lower ends thereof with aflat base plate 67 adapted to rest on the top horizontal wall of thebase 15. At their upper ends the legs 65 and 66 are pivotally connectedby a pin 68 to an elongated handle 69. In the specific form shown, thepin 68 comprises a nut and bolt arrangement with the shank of the boltpassing through openings provided therefor in the legs 65 and 66 andhandle 69. The handle 69 at the forward end thereof is provided with apair of laterally spaced prongs 70 and 71, each of which has a recessformed along the upper edge thereof defining a hook adapted to engage avertical wall of the standard through the laterally spaced openings 13cthereof.

In use of the jack the base plate 67 is placed on the top wall of thedisplay base and the prongs 70 and 71 are inserted through a pair oflaterally spaced slots 130. The jack then has the configurationillustrated in FIG. 9, and when a downward force is applied against thehandle 69 at the outer end thereof, an upwardly directed force isdeveloped between the display base and standard 11c with the result thatthe standard is lifted from its socket. When the standard is thusreleased the prongs 70 and 71 are removed from the slots 13c and thehandle 69 may be rotated into a position wherein it extendslongitudinally along the legs 65 and 66 for convenience in storage.

The jack shown in FIGS. 9 through 11 may be used as an alternative forthe jack 40 heretofore described and may be employed with all of thewedges 22, 22a and 22b, for the modified jack has no direct associationwith the wedge, but rather develops a force between the display base andstandard. Conveniently, the modified jack is employed in connection withthe wedge 22c shown in FIG. 12 for this wedge is a unitary elementhaving no openings along the length thereof which could be engaged bythe lower end of the hook arm 43 of the jack 40. The wedge may be formedof wood, as shown, or may be made of metal or any other suitablematerial. It cooperates with the standard 11c and socket defined by thereinforcing element 220 and strap 250 in the manner of the wedgesheretofore described. However, the wedge 220 is not a captivated elementand is free from both the standard and strap when not performing itswedging function.v

In the illustrated embodiments of the invention, the wedging forces areexerted generally parallel to the base wall 16 and to the vertical legof the reinforcing element 24. Either of the captivated wedges or freewedge could be arranged to engage the side of the standard facing thewall 16 or the side of the standard facing directly away from the wall16, but such an arrangement is not preferred because the wedging forceswould tend to pull the strap away from the vertical leg of thereinforcing element 24.

It will be apparent that a round post may be employed if desired, and inthis case, the socket may be essentially circular in cross section andmay include a tapered slot or key-way for the wedge. Also, if the wall16 of the base is sufficiently strong and rigid, the reinforcing element24 may be eliminated--the socket plate 25 being fastened directly to thewall 16.

Various embodiments of the invention have now been shown and describedwhereby, in display devices including a base and one or more uprightstandards, each standard may be very rapidly and easily connected to anddisconnected from the base without disturbing the arrangement ofmerchandise thereon, and the invention includes a unitary fasteningmeans for rigidly securing the standard to the base without the use ofaccessory structure and devices.

While there has been described what are at present considered to be thepreferred embodiments of the invention, it will be understood thatvarious modifications may be made therein, and it is intended to coverin the appended claims all such modifications as fall within the truespirit and scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. In a structure for displaying merchandise and the like, a base havingan upwardly extending wall portion, a strap member carried by said wallportion and providing a laterally extending offset defining a socket forreceiving a standard therein, a longitudinally extending load bearingstandard member having a lower end portion disposed within said socketand extending upwardly therefrom, a thrust surface on the bottom of saidend portion for transferring the load on said standard member, asupporting abutment disposed below said socket and engaging said thrustsurface for receiving the downward load of said standard member, a wedgedisposed within said socket secured to and slidably carried by one ofsaid members, said wedge carrying member having a slot therein elongatedgenerally in the direction of the longitudinal axis of said standardmember, a pin connecting said wedge to said wedge carrying member andslidably disposed in said slot for movement therealong, first frictionsurfaces on two spaced apart confronting Walls of said socket, saidconfronting walls extending laterally from said base wall portion, oneof said first surfaces being inclined in a direction upward and awayfrom the longitudinal axis of said standard member, the other of saidfirst surfaces being disposed generally parallel to the longitudinalaxis of said standard member, second friction surfaces on two opposedparallel sides of said end portion, and wedging surfaces on two opposedsides of said wedge, one of said wedging surfaces being inclined in adirection upward and away from the longitudinal axis of said standardmember and generally parallel to said inclined first surface, the otherof said wedging surfaces being disposed generally parallel to thelongitudinal axis of said standard member, said inclined wedging surfaceforcibly engaging said inclined first friction surface, the other ofsaid wedging surfaces forcibly engaging one of said second frictionsurfaces for providing a wedging force between said end portion of saidstandard and the adjacent socket wall, the other of said second frictionsurfaces forcibly engaging the other of said first friction surfaces forproviding a reaction force between said socket wall and said end portionto prevent inadvertent retrograde movement of said standard member outof said socket, said wedging force and said reaction force acting indirections parallel to said base wall portion. I

2. A structure as defined in claim 1 wherein said supporting abutment isconnected to said base wall portion.

3. A structure as defined in claim 1 wherein said wedge is secured tosaid standard member end portion.

4. A structure as defined in claim 1 wherein said wedge is secured tosaid strap member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTSSwitzerland July 2,

